Christmas in July right? This was a fun holiday book to escape into and I cant wait for when its closer to winter to see what everyone thinks about this. This is another one of those Hallmark holiday reads with some spice and I am 100% here for it. Perfect for the holiday season.

Content Warning: blackmail, parental abandonment


Tessa Bailey does it again with her spicy rom-coms, but this time I felt like it had a Daisy Jones & the Six inspiration which I loved.

Beat and Melody’s mom hate one another. The two women were bandmates decades ago and recently with their song going viral again years later, everyone wants a band reunion. Beat and Melody only met once when they were teenagers and basically it was love at first sight, especially for Melody. The next time they meet they are adults, and Beat signed up to do a reality show about reuniting the band, so he could make some money.

I was invested! I never read Daisy Jones & the Six but I did watch the show and Beat and Melody’s moms being part of a band made me think of Daisy Jones for some reason. I think because both women had a reputation and so much drama between them, it is such the typical rock star problems and it makes for a great story. So I wanted to see how the reunion would take place! Also I love Octavia and Trina as characters, their bickering made me laugh. Octavia the lead diva and Trina the wild child, they were great!

The romance is hot and spicy. And Beat’s kink? He likes to come to the edge of pleasure and be denied. I don’t know how I felt about it! The lead up and build up is great but I was feeling Melody’s confusion and feelings of loneliness about it when everything was said and done. But the reason for Beat’s preferences have a deeper meaning and I think that’s why I love them even with the whole insta-love, love at first sight situation because they see each other next as adults where a lot has happened to them both. They’ve grown in ways, some good and bad, but I love that they feel so familiar to one another without really knowing each other. I was rooting for them hard!


Now did it give me Christmas vibes? No, it’s definitely not Hallmark movie worthy, it doesn’t have all the holiday cheer and cheese that I expect out of a holiday romance. The band reunion is set to happen during the holidays and there is an epic snow fight but other than that I felt like there wasn’t enough to remind me the story was taking place in December.

Tropes: insta love, forced proximity, one bed, strangers to friends to lovers

Why you should read it:
*you like a hot and spicy holiday romance
*to see if the band reunion happens, Octavia and Trina’s drama

Why you might not want to read it:
*I had to get used to Beat’s name lol…I get it’s because his mom is a musician (Beat and Melody) but I kept asking “why?”

My Thoughts:

Not quite the holiday romance I was expecting meaning I wanted more holiday themes in it but I was fully invested in the band reunion because Octavia and Trina’s drama was classic rock star drama! There was a lot of spice in this one but I like that it was balanced with Beat and Melody’s love story even if it was insta-love. I think they would naturally be curious about one another because their mothers had such a public past so maybe meeting one another felt familiar because of the limelight. Overall, I did love them together and that this has a happy ending.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

A Tessa Bailey holiday book? Yes, please!

I enjoyed the story of Beat and Melody quite a bit. They are drawn together like magnets, but the sweetness of them learning to be vulnerable and trusting was surprising. The characters are both fun and charming in their own ways. Beat is a little overly dramatic at times, I may have rolled my eyes a little but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book.

Oddly, though the story is centered around Christmas, the actual holiday felt almost irrelevant. Except when one of the characters assaults a Santa Claus. 😂 Hope that isn’t a spoiler.

This book started out very slowly and had a trope I normally dislike.
Beat and Melody are children of 2 female rock stars who were pregnant when their duo broke up. They briefly meet when they are 16, though they had been aware of each other because of social media as well as magazines.
14 YEARS LATER, and yes, this is the trope I dislike, they meet again. For various reasons, Beat has decided to participate in a live streaming reality show to bring about a reunion of the duo and asks Melody to participate.
We learn about how they have lived in the intervening years, as well as what has happened with their mothers.
There is a lot of hot sex, some misunderstandings, but Melody finally comes to understand her power. She is funny and likeable and finally accepts herself.
There are some great scenes, especially when Beat and Melody finally meet Melody's mother.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced copy for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon pub for this earc

This book started off super cute. Kids of rock stars who could have been best friends but never got a chance? Yeah, I thought I’d love it too. But then they have 10 minute interaction and don’t see each other for 14 years.

I could understand having a crush on a memory of that meeting. I would be cool with it. But the insta love? Because obviously these two didn’t change at all in 14 years *eye roll* So yeah. Not even insta love. Insta lust. That what they should sell this story as. There is a lot of smut in this book and not enough deep and meaningful conversations. Beat and Melody had too much potential but they just kept “miscommunicating” and having sex instead. And at some point it just got a little too “obsessive and possessed” for me.

I wanted to love it but I guess I’m a rom com kind of girl.

Overall, if it’s holiday season and you’re looking for some spice, this one is for you.

This book will be the Christmas season read!! From the spice to the plot it was great. Tessa always does a great job making everything full circle! Amazing.

Y'ALL ARE NOT READY.

"Wreck the Halls" is an unhinged insta-love dirty-talking un-put-downable holiday romance drug. I finished this book in less than a day and I have no regrets.

Beat and Melody are attempting to reunite their mothers, who were a famous 90s rockstar duo, by Christmas Eve for a live-streaming reality tv show. Very quickly though, the show (and the fans) becomes about the red-hot romance bubbling between Beat and Melody.

Tessa Bailey is back at it with zinging dialogue and spicy bedroom scenes. This time it's all about edging, which works perfectly in how romances are structured. The couple dances around each other for chapters on end, not giving in to their desires until BAM they do. Satisfaction for everyone, including the reader.

Of course, there are the nicely finished character arcs as Beat and Melody learn to trust each other and be brave in public in the face of childhoods dominated by the fame of their parents. Although the situation is unique (what average person is growing up in the public eye?) Beat and Melody's hang-ups are still relatable. How do you create boundaries with a parent? How do you trust a partner with your most interior self?

And because this is a romance it's all figured out in the end wrapped tidily with a red Christmas bow. This book is so much fun and the characters are so loveable, there's no way you don't enjoy it.

im typically head over heels for anything tessa bailey but this one didnt quite hit the spot for me. ii wasnt really a fan of beat and mels character didnt resonate with me. i still loved tessas sweet and sorta sexy writing style but wanted more. this isnt the end for me though, ill be reading mrs bailey for years to come

3.5 stars!!

love a tessa bailey book :)

i think if you like tessa's other books, then you're likely to enjoy this one. i could've used more of a holiday feel and a little less insta love.

overall, this was a fun holiday romp and i will be reading much more of tessa bailey in the future.

Famous former rock band mates and their children are at the heart of this novel. The band mates have sworn for the past 30 years that they will never reunite. Can their children and an enterprising television producer change their minds or will it take a more intriguing and sinister development to do it? Or was the break-up so unbearable that they will truly never get back together? Come along for the ride and read Beat Dawkins and Melody Gallard adventure of a lifetime with a live stream of them trying to get their mother's back together for a reunion on Christmas Eve in Rockefeller Center.

This is a wonderfully written story with alternating points of view from the two main characters. Beat and Melody meet for the first time when they are 16 and asked to do separate interviews about their mothers. That one brief meeting has a lasting and profound effect on Beat and Melody. They exchange contact information; but, never act on it. Then, 14 years later, with Beat being blackmailed, the only solution is to try to get their mothers back together; does Beat reach out to Melody. Beat is an intense individual that is obsessively private yet is known in elite and general social circles. Melody is an introvert that is happiest when she is repairing damaged collector's/classic books; but she has a delightful personality and is always one with a great quip or good one-liner.

This is not a "light" read in my opinion. It deals with a lot of social pressures, media shaming, depression, self-harm/depravation, sexual acts, and light drug use. This is all blended into the story in a way where this reader felt the pain/sorrow, hurt, devastation, hope, and goodness of these characters.

A holiday romance with Daisy Jones and the Six vibes.

Melody and Beat team up to try and reunite their mothers, an iconic rock duo, for a holiday special after a 30 year breakup. The two have only met once prior, when sixteen years old, but despite this, the connection they share makes them feel closer than ever.

While this followed TB’s romcom formula, I thought the plot itself was very unique and appreciated that it took about 45% into the story before any spicy scenes happened. There was a fun livestream angle as a producer was filming all events leading up to the reunion special. This forced the MCs to spend a lot of time together and allowed for swoony moments on and off camera.

Overall this isn’t a holiday must read but a perfect pick if you’ve enjoyed Tessa’s previous books! Just make sure to suspend some disbelief.

Read if you like:
-Holiday romances
-Open door scenes
-Instant love
-NYC setting
-Big reunions
-Refurbishing books

Thank you Avon for the ARC! Pub 10/3

One of my least favorite Tessa Bailey books to date. This wasn’t my cup of tea so take my review with a grain of salt. The character names, the conflict, the “Christmas” setting. I guess I’m just not a fan of rockstar, musician, singer/songwriter type romances. But besides that fact this book was just not it for me.

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Tessa Bailey. Her insta-love, possessive male leads usually have me falling to my knees but Wreck the Halls left me wanting more. The characters while sweet, and charming, said all the right things to be overly in love with one another but I never felt the crazy chemistry. I think the plot was fun, I nice twist on a holiday love story. The banter, the push and pull, the spicy scenes, they all kept me flipping pages like they were about to expire. Tessa definitely didn’t disappoint, I just wanted a little more.

Tessa Bailey always delivers and this one is no different! So happy to get a spicy Christmas romance from her.

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Tessa Bailey; she is definitely one of my favorite contemporary authors and I love everything I've read by her. However, this book felt different somehow. I normally love the insta-love/possessive hero that can be found in a lot of her books but in this one, there was truly nothing to go on in terms of the characters' relationships so it felt hard to embrace. In her other books, it's easy to accept the insta-lust set-ups bc you don't need a relationship of that to occur, but it's hard to accept the main characters having feelings for each other after saying hello. I also hate to be this nit-picky, but I could not not get past "Beat" being a name, I don't think I've ever been bothered by a name before but this one really impacted me.

Christmas is my favourite time of year and this book was like a Christmas morning filled with live and laughter and fun moments!

Tessa Bailey has yet to disappoint because this book was so fun to read and I cannot wait to pick it up again during December to give the book and myself the full Christmas experience!

As a Christmas romance junkie, this hit all the feels. We had an insta-love story with depth to the characters. If you want a quick, spicy Christmas read, Wreck the Halls is for you!

Going into this story blind I was not sure what to expect, but the banter and the chemistry was off the charts! Melody and Beat are modern day fated mates and their connection was so real.

Melody and Beat are the children of a rock group that broke up and became mortal enemies. Now as adults they are recruited by a reality show to get the band back together. A feat that they fully believe is impossible, but both have their reasons for going along with the scheme.

The way that Tessa Bailey wove this story amazed me. I'm not always one for holiday stories, but this book had humor and heart and so much tension and yearning. The way that Beat felt about Melody and her feelings towards him resonated in my heart and my bones. This is a must read, hit all my buttons and had the perfect Tessa Bailey spice and dirty talk!

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and voluntarily give my review.

Everything you expect, want, and love in a Tessa Bailey.

Sexy, fun, quirky. I connected with the characters and I really enjoyed that it was a holiday romcom to mix it up from her latest releases. DOES THIS WOMAN DO ANYTHING BUT WRITE BOOKS? What a machine.

If Tessa writes it, I'ma eat it up. That's a fact.

Making the yuletide merry and edging emotional since 2023.

Such a cute and fun read. A perfect take to the beach or park for the day and sit back and relax and enjoy. The perfect little sprinkle of Christmas in July. Tessa Bailey never does me wrong